Between the mid 1970s and 1992, daily cigarette use by high school seniors dropped by 60%. Since then, two factors have become apparent that have added to an increase in cigarette use by teenagers. First, instead of supporting tax increases and smoking bans, health lobbyists and Clinton administration officials aimed criticism at youth and their vulnerability to the pressure from cigarette industry's advertising campaigns. Second, parents of the current generation of high-risk teenagers have untreated drug problems that interfere with their role in guiding their children about not smoking. This book argues that teenagers today are getting the wrong message about cigarette smoking. The government's decision to limit the age teenagers can buy tobacco implies that they have to be old enough to participate. The anti-tobacco lobby adds to the confusion by suggesting that instead of telling teenagers to resist influences from their peers about smoking, they should be like their peers and not smoke, since the majority of teenagers do not smoke. The results of the American tobacco policy of the 1990s have shown that strategies fail when they are anti-youth, denigrate adolescent decision-making, and insist that adults take away youth rights. As long as the tobacco industry continues its anti-smoking campaign aimed towards youth, while at the same time increasing advertising to adults, tobacco use will not decline. Some of the recommendations included to help achieve a smoke-free society are: (1) the thrust of anti-tobacco policy should be that tobacco use is socially unacceptable; (2) tobacco should be regulated as an addictive drug; (3) tobacco policy reform must be integrated with reformed drug policies; and (4) tobacco education should be factual and encourage teenage resistance against drug addiction. (Contains 80 references.) (JDM)